The debate ensued tonight between Rob and I regarding the sacredness of human life versus nonhuman life. I strongly believe that Human life is the most sacred, and for many reasons. He thinks that life is life is life is life is life…..his life is no more important than a cow’s life, or a chicken’s life.

By his reasoning I cannot see the reason he is not a vegetarian at least, vegan at extreme. I read someplace that his line of reasoning should denote just that…such a view ought to quell his taste for the flesh of an animal. Our farm should only be vegetables.

I believe Human life is the most sacred of all life. I beleive this because 1) as humans our brains are evolved to the point of knowledge 2)we have free will 3)we are not driven by instict alone 4)we contribute to the advancement (and sometimes decay because of our knowledge,) of society and our race of animal in general 5)we are the only animal to have a concept of the afterlife.

I honestly think his notion is foolish and I have told him so. I think it is defeatist, self loathing and martyr-like. He has spoken to the effect many times of hating being human. That he is ashamed of it. I cannot understand this viewpoint at all. To be so self loathing as a human. Yikes.

This debate got sparked because of an episode of “Friends”. It’s the episode where Phoebe finds a cat and thinks it is her dead mother reincarnated. I do believe in reincarnation, but I do not believe we reincarnate as other animals, only as humans. Rob mentioned that he’d enjoy coming back as a sea otter or a May fly. He went on to explain the May fly. He said in the span of 24 hours the May fly is born, eats, has sex, and dies. The span of human life in 24 hours. Tell me that is not self loathing and defeatist.

How does a person come to his conclusion? He hasn’t the ability to tell me, so I ask you all, fair readers. Do any of you hold to this line of reasoning?

Not an idea new to me, today marks our first Coffee Cauldron at the PR Pantry and Quilter’s Parlour. From 12-2 Pagans, Eclectics, Freethinkers and Lovers of the Earth are gathering for coffee and socialization.

Of course the idea sprang from the Coffee Cauldron in the Twin Cities. I have never been, have always been jealous of those living in the Twin Cities who can attend, and longed for something similar up here.

It’s a great chance to spread boundaries, hone different friendships, and show people that might not agree with Alternative Paths, that we are not showy people, not freaks, not people being different for the sake fo being different, etc. The joy of going for coffee and fellowship exists outside of church basements.

I am excited and antsy and cannot wait for the next 2 hours to pass. I think I’ll do some cleaning to make it pass a little faster.

After Coffee Cauldron V and Dare coming over. V has an antenatal appointment with me and they are paying Rob for his mechanic services, picking up the vehicle, and staying for pot roast. MMMMM Pot roast. Truth be told, though, I would really like to just be at home with only my family tonight. I’m not sure the reason, but it feels like a mellow sort of day. I want to eat pot roast, watch The Amazing Race (I am addicted to that program!) and do a little writing in my BOS/L. I have loose things stuck in it that need to be permenently placed.

Grace yesterday showed interest in forming her own BOS/L and learning about Tarot. I found a children’s ezine that features a different Trump card each edition (it’s a Pagan kids ezine, I’ll post the link later) and has a children’s looking Tarot card. I copy and pasted the photos of the first 16 Trumps and printed them out on card stock so Grace can start learning.

She has a Fae oracle already that I gave her years ago but she is really really wanting to be able to read.

Since she expressed an interest in a REAL BOS/L I started doing to digging online for things a kid might want to stick in a BOS/L. I’ve got links to coloring pages, Pagan kids wordfinds, kids spells, rituals, meanings behind the magick explained just for kids. I am thrilled and so is she!

So this coming week I am going to go get her a three ring binder and some clear sheet covers so she can start her BOS/L. This’ll be an interesting thing to see happen. She adores Isis and has since she was about 2. She also adores, interestingly, Medusa. She had a dream at about 3 and asked me the next day if there was such a goddess that had spaghetti hair. I asked her if she was sure it was spaghetti and she said, “well, no, they had heads.” So I asked her if they might be snakes and she said yes! I was really quite shocked. So Isis and Medusa. An interesting combination.

Zoe has taken to putting water into jars then letting markers soak in the jars making “potions” that Rob and I have stepped in quite a number of times after she has poured them out in doorways to “keep out the bad things”. I am quite amused.

Deg is my energy anchor. That is as much as I know about him in his spiritual existence thus far.

Rune is here by me constantly. I am told he’ll be here until I pass through the veil. Both of my sons seem to cherish me. I’ll take that 😉

I have learned that when children are not indoctrinated or when children that ARE indoctrinated are given 5 minutes to be left to their own devices, they cling to nature. They cherish and worship nature.

Grace got baptised as an infant, something that even as a Catholic, I was against as it never made sense to me. It’s fire insurance for the old church biddies. This is the readon my grandmother baptised me in her bathroom sink at only a couple of days old as my mother lay in the hospital near death after heammoraging. She feared my Lutheran father might not have me baptised Catholic, thus condemning my pour infant soul for all eternity. I love the sentiment behind that story, but the dogma is frankly absurd.

Since Grace’s baptism, I have not instructed her in any tradition, Christian, Pagan, or otherwise. She is honestly kept out of most of my spiritual practice sans for a family ritual at a Sabbat, or if a pet dies, the funerary that goes into their passing. that she has made her direction at this phase in her life to be cherishing the Earth and loving the Goddess is astounding to me!

An example of the notion I mentioned above is one I noticed in the documentary “Jesus Camp”. The little dancer girl was on the deck during a rain shower. She wanted to go out into the rain and her mother said no, but then relented for about ten seconds. The girl would not come out of the lightly falling rain when her mother bid her in. The look of pure bliss and spirit about the girl became quite clear. I could see her cherishing being pure spirit and relishing in nature. Nature was her only care, her only god, at that very moment in time. Allowed to just be, she clung to nature.

I am so thankful my children live in the place they do. They are allowed to just be, every single day. They are allowed to find their own path and be pure spirit. They are able to find Goddess and God in everything they do and all on their own with no meddling from anyone. How can a person take that from a child, calling them “willfull”. I’ll take a willfull child over a broken child any day of the week. Broken children come tomy house and their will comes back even if only fleeting. My heart cries for those children.

is my most favorite planner ever. I am unsure-rather-I cannot remember-where it was I first saw the We’Moon, but I instantly loved it and ordered one and have ever since. The ’08 calendars have been put up for sale now so go here: http://www.wemoon.ws/index.asp?DC=wm2008 and see what I mean.

I love the ’08 calendars already and plan to order mine asap! LOVE THEM!

That’s all. Just had to do that quick. I make no money off of it, I just love them is all….

I, with Rob, just finished watching Mel Gibson’s (Go ahead and sigh your disdain over MG being an anti-Semite…I’ll wait………………………………………………………………….are you okay now? ready to just put that aside and read? K. Good. 🙂 )

Okay, so we just got done with MG’s “Apocalypto”. I have to say that at first, when all of the gore started, I was a little turned off…especially when the bad guy ripped the baby from the mama’s arms and flung it about. I kept watching though, and it was much to my gain.

To quote Rob, “There was a lot of fucking running. Just like ‘The Last of the Mohicans.’ All that fucking running.” I think it spoke to the theme of the movie, though. It was pure adrenaline and survival and the attempt on Jaguar Paw’s part to not get caught and to not get caught up -in the end with the Spanish arrive- in the end of the world. It got me thinking about my children and how we are trying to save our children form this world. Rob asked me how the running spoke to the theme of the film. Well here is how -at least to me- in the world as I see it, we are clock bound and ever chasing something bigger, better, and more grand than what we have or have been blessed with. We -collectively-care not how we get what we want or who we hurt or trample over in the process of getting it. We are always go go go with blinders on, not seeing the impact around us. Not caring the wake we leave. Rob was put off when I said we need to save our children -and when I speak our children, I speak in terms of the Village- from the world. He said there is no saving our children form the world. We have to change the world first. THERE! said I. There is where the ideas line up. YES we need to save our children and YES it can be done and YES we need to save the world. It is done by saving our children from the world in it’s current state. Who was the quote at the beginning of the film attributed to I don’t remember, but, it said in short that a civilization cannot collapse without if it does not first collapse within. The Spanish came to the Yukatan Penninsula at the end of the Mayan’s self destruction. they did it to themselves (This is going to come back in in a later post about the Mayan Prophesies and what I think about them and what I think about my dad who is so convinced in their validity and that the world is going to completely collapse in 2012. But enough for now, more on that another time.) I do not want to see my children hauled away by people who are going to beat my husband down and rape the land and me and possibly my children. THAT is in essence what WE are letting happen every day. Every time we let someone do another something bad to our Earth, or our bodies, we are letting them destroy us even more.

Go ahead and think this is some conspiracy thing, but it simply isn’t. I am not a conspiracy nut. I care deeply not only for my children but for the children of the world and the state that we are leaving this world for them. Not just environmentally, but financially, socially, morally, etc. We are leaving everything in ruin. Perhaps the Mayans and their prophesies are right and this is the end of this age…maybe that is a good thing? Maybe colelctively after this age we will WAKE UP and see what the hell we are doing to our earth and ourselves? Maybe we will stop all the fucking running?

I might wake up tomorrow and change some of this. It’s sort of rambling at this point in my thought process, but it’s definitely something I think about daily…teaching my daughters to be interdependent, not simply independent. I strongly believe that independence has been the ruin of our society in recent and even not so recent history. We are all a part of each other and when we all begin to realize that, THAT is the start of a new age.

More later.

oh and I gotta say….the mama had a baby….in the water….a flood no less…unassisted. Oh and love the daddy wearing the baby at the end and all of the happy co-sleeping…..yeah these are the things I notice…these are the things that breed interdependence.

We have been home improving and purging un-needed and un-used items from our home. We got a new dresser for me because I am the only one in the house who was lacking one. I finally have a place to put my clothes away!! YAY!! I delivered, last week, a 55 gallon contractor bag full of clothes and I still have more to purge!

Business is taking off, I have a delivery to make tomorrow, a store shelf to re-stock tomorrow and inventory to take as I am running low! YAY! I made my initial goal and now I can restock and purchase what I need for the next step in my venture. I love the expanding!! It is happening faster than I even envisioned.

So something is bothering me, but not like in a huge way, just in an irritating little itch kind of way. There was a comment posted here yesterday regarding my ignorance and dabbling in things I don’t know enough about, etc. It was rather odd and I have done a little whois.ws search behind the person who did the commenting when I hadn’t heard back from her…and I still haven’t.

While I am a Witch, and I occassionally discuss Witchcraft here, I have NEVER been one to be very telling about how I practice, only very open about the fact that I am a Witch. For a person who does not know me, to assume I am ignorant (I can only imagine she means in my practice of the Craft) regarding my life or whatever, is just ridiculous. I have been underestimated more often than not in my life in general, and very underestimated as a Witch-simply because I am not telling in how I practice. I feel I repeated myself there sort of.

I have only this to say, if you don’t like what you read here regarding Witchcraft, if it doesn’t jive with how you practice, and you cannot handle that-then move along. I really care not. I live how I live, I know what I know. You cannot judge me or my practice any more than I can judge you. Move along, dear. (I so hate when people refer to others as dear…it is so high and mighty sounding in my opinion.)

Okay, now that I have that over with….whew.

Gotta run, THE tv show I watch is starting….AMAZING RACE, baby!!!! I also have soap bags to sew up….My sweet husband took apart and oiled my entire Singer while I was stirring soap! What a sweet, sweet man!

oh oh oh…go check out my etsy: gaiasrose.etsy.com I have a couple of new things up!! Super cuteness!!